Into Iowa-Never Trust the Locals

Another long ride to start our 6th week as we headed to our 7th state. I loved today's route except for one thing. We woke to cloud cover.....Yippee! but also a fairly strong wind. Now I decided to talk to Barb as Iowa is her home. "It's OK Gayle, It's going to be on our tail." OK...I don't know where Barb's tail is on her bike but it must be different than mine. Never trust the locals! Love you anyways, Barb. Although the road started rough, which concerned me, with a few kms under our belt they smoothed out for a great ride. The journey was through rolling hills and farmland that looked and felt a lot like home.


There were lots of interesting things to distract me from being a serious cyclist. Like this town that reminded me of a gentleman from my church, Herman Koops. Herman and his wife Rini have been a great support for me in prayer and in sending greetings on the road. It was also their travel business Travel with Herman, that I booked my flight to Seattle with, so I Traveled with Herman to Herman...sort of.

Also really liked this propane tank paint job

and this creative mail box.

And this sign.

Now at my sister Anita's farm, Canada geese just seem to fall from the sky from lead poisoning...is that OK?
Just before we left Nebraska, we crossed the Missouri River on this amazing steel bridge. Even the driving surface was steel grid that you could see through and played havoc with the thin tires on most bikes.


Our cyclists had to mostly walk but I found my cleats catching and with my fat tires I was better able to work the surface so I was able to bike across. I think it was the first time I was passing people walking and not them passing me!

Safely into Iowa, I was having a great ride and it looked like I actually might be able to finish one of these long rides before dinner! Unfortunately, about 20kms out at a stop for ice at a service station where I was distracted by some extremely good looking bikers(as in motorcycles) on very HOT hogs. "Hi! How are you? Can I tell you about my trek across the continent so that I can just look at you a little bit longer?" OK...so I didn't say that out loud but that is what was going through my head. I did tell them about Sea To Sea, gave them a card and got to look and smile at them for a nice bit of time. All good, win win situation.
As I was making the last turn into the camp a truck suddenly turned right in front of me. Good attention and quick reaction on my part saved a collision but others weren't so blessed today. One of the cyclists, Eritia, was cut off by a car and suffered a few minor cuts after taking out the car's side mirror and hub cap. It could have been a lot worse but still a wake up call for us all.